1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices to prepare food in accordance with some cooking cycle which then maintains such food at an appropriate serving temperature. More specifically, this invention relates to devices for brewing hot drinks such as coffee or tea.
Presently, many stores provide brewing machines which prepare a hot drink such as coffee in a reservoir which is maintained at a suitable serving temperature. Many such machines have a button to activate a brewing cycle to prepare a defined quantity of the hot drink.
One problem associated with such brewing machines is that the stored hot drink may be maintained at a serving temperature for extended lengths of time, thereby destroying its flavor.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have some means for determining how long a food has been maintained in a reservoir at its serving temperature.
Another difficulty with conventional machines that prepare a food in accordance with a cycle and store it in a reservoir at a serving temperature is that a clearly visible and easily activated button can be activated at undesirable times.
It is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus that will be capable of determining the period of time between the last initiated cooking or brewing cycle and the moment up to which the reservoir of stored food has been kept at an appropriate serving temperature.
Also as one of the embodiments of this invention is an apparatus to prevent the undesired and inadvertent initiation of a cooking or brewing cycle.